"Couldn't she have healed her condition? A basic healing spell would have straightened her spine, alleviate symptoms of old age and allowed her to walk properly."

Adrian watched the approaching old lady curiously, surprised at how…unfortunate she was. Most middle-cla.s.s people, and even those barely sustaining themselves on minimum wages in the city, had access to healing magic and rejuvenation treatment, which allowed them to restore a portion of their youth and their strength, and heal whatever injuries or diseases they might have when they reached an advanced age.

However…

"Not everyone can afford healthcare," I replied somberly, looking around at the decaying, decrepit neighborhood. Clearly this was a district mired in poverty, with the poor and homeless driven to this place of squalor to survive as best as they could under harsh conditions. The Federation didn't care about them because they would be a drain on the economy, or something like that. Welfare systems were anathema to capitalism. Unless these people were willing to return to the workforce and contribute to the economy, the Federation had no business providing them with even basic healthcare and stuff. Or perhaps they somehow slipped under the radar of the government. Or maybe they chose to live out here on their own, because they refused to work and be exploited by capitalist overlords.

The old lady in particular seemed like she would rather enjoy the last few years of her life in retirement, instead of magically prolonging her lifespan by subordinating herself to a huge company willing to pay for her medical and healing fees. She might have chose to exile herself to this neighborhood out of her own choice, and not because she was forced by circ.u.mstances. I honestly had no idea, and I wasn't rude enough to ask.

"We ought to help her," Melina whispered. I glanced at her and shrugged.

"Do you know any healing spells?"

"Eh? No."

"Then there's nothing we can do." As harsh as I might sound, it was also the truth. It was far, far crueler to make promises that we couldn't keep, and give false hope, than to present the bitter reality as bitterly and honestly as I could.

"No way…can we at least pay for her medical treatment with the mission's rewards?" Melina looked distraught at what she deemed was my cold indifference. I allowed my expression to soften a little. I had the same ideals as she did, once, but my naivety had long been crushed by the gigantic gears of society and capitalism.

"Who do you think is paying us the mission rewards?" I asked, turning to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Eh? The person who provides the mission…?"

"And who do you think requested for this mission?"

It took Melina a few seconds to make the connection and her jaw dropped from realization. She lowered her head, blus.h.i.+ng slightly.

"Exactly." I sighed. "They can't even afford to provide proper mission renumeration, so they can't afford to pay for their medical treatments or healing magic, even if we decline the mission rewards. Which is a pitiful sum, by the way. They just…can't afford anything. That's why we students are the ones who are carrying out these missions, and not proper mercenaries like the Silver Wolves."

"That's…"

"I'm sure I can ask for a bit of money from Dad," Adrian began, and then I gestured toward the whole neighborhood.

"Just for this lady? What about the rest of the neighborhood? I know you can probably afford the treatment of one, two or even three of the people here, but what are you going to do about the rest? And can you possibly expect your dad to fund the medical treatment of an entire neighborhood?"

When Adrian fell speechless, I continued with a heavy sigh.

"Besides…it's not as simple as just paying for their treatments. They need to sign up for medical insurance and healthcare schemes, to maintain their usual treatments. It's not a one-time thing."

Also, and this I kept from the two kids, the elderly lady was more likely to refuse. Even as poor as she was, she had her own pride. She didn't want the pity of others, to receive money because they felt sorry for her. Additionally, she would refuse to be one of the only ones to receive treatment and healing magic when the vast majority of her neighborhood didn't. It might surprise some of the edgy, self-centered readers who would most definitely mock her for being "stupid", but not everyone was selfish and thought only of themselves.

In a closely knitted neighborhood like this where everyone had to rely on each other in order to survive, they had adopted the all for one, one for all mentality. Everyone was willing to live and suffer together, refusing to abandon their adopted families even for the hope of a better life. They were that kind of closely connected community, after all.

"Are you the students from Saint Teresa Academy?" The elderly lady asked as she approached us. Being advanced in age, her hearing had slightly degraded to the point where she was no longer able to overhear our conversation. Or if she did catch what pa.s.sed between us three, she chose to keep quiet and ignore it. "The ones who will be helping us rid our neighborhood of the Cyclops Rats?"

"Yeah, that's us," I confirmed and stepped forward to bow a greeting to her. "If you could perhaps provide more information…"

"Yes, I will." The elderly lady readily accepted and slowly turned away. "My place might not be big, but please allow me to show some hospitability…"

As I expected, the old lady lived in a dilapidated house, the structure practically falling apart. She had a few kids living with her. She told us that they were orphans, and I watched them run across the crumbling corridor, their innocent laughter completely out of place and a stark contrast to the peeling paint, the moldy walls and the broken ground.

Portions of the house had fallen into disrepair, and I noticed that a faucet in the kitchen wasn't working. The stoves were cold and left unused, mostly because the lady couldn't afford any gas. Nonetheless, she managed to boil water using dried, dessicated twigs taken from the garden and casting a very basic fire spell.

The garden itself was untended, with weeds growing rampantly all over and choking out any form of life. There were traces of home-grown vegetables as the lady and her adopted orphans had tried to grow their own food in their backyard, but failed because…well, let's just say it's not easy to grow your own crops in your own garden. Any edgy reader who casually made stupid comments and railed about main characters not being able to live off the land, be self-sufficient or cultivate crops obviously had no agricultural experience at all. They knew how to talk big in the comments section, just like every other hypocritical keyboard warriors furiously typing away in their rooms, but never actually had to experience any real hards.h.i.+p outside of their homes.

"Excuse the rowdiness of these children," the old lady said as a couple of toddlers rushed past behind us, almost clattering into the table and knocking me over. Good thing they ran into me and not Adrian and Melina. I could physically endure whatever collision the kids caused without suffering any injury, but I couldn't say the same for my two charges. The elderly lady smiled warmly as she watched them run off without so much as an apology. "They have all suffered tremendously, ever since their parents pa.s.sed away. Without any relatives, they were abandoned in the streets and left to die, so I took them in. I am just sorry that there is very little I can provide for them…"

"If you contact the authorities, I'm sure the Federation will arrange for them to be placed in a home…" Melina began, but the old lady shook her head.

"Perhaps they might all have a better life if they are taken in by the government…but they would be split up. Our families would be broken down, and they would be sent to different homes." The old lady lowered her head. "The government is more…practical and utilitarian than caring. They might perhaps listen to our requests, but their ability to comply is a lot more limited."

"That's…" Melina trailed off, but was unable to come up with anything else. The elderly lady merely smiled and waved a hand.

"Enough of that. Let's move on to the matter at hand…the reason why you've come here today. Ah, excuse my manners. My name is Wai Po."

"I'm Richard Huang. This is Adrian Stuart, and this is Melina Franklin."

The two kids lowered their heads politely as I introduced them, and Wai Po favored them with a warm gaze. She then glanced at me somewhat sharply.

"Forgive me for asking, but aren't those two...a little too young to be partic.i.p.ating in combat missions such as this? I know I am not in any position to ask, since I was the one who sent out the request in the first place, but nevertheless I am aware of the rules and regulations that the Federation established regarding student missions. If I'm not mistaken, only second year high school students and above are allowed to accept missions, but these two don't seem any older than middle school students."

"You are right. They will not be partic.i.p.ating in the mission per say." I glanced at Adrian and Melina, narrowing my eyes at them before they could protest. "They are just here to watch and learn from a safe distance."

"Uh, well…technically we were the ones who snuck aboard the transport and stowed away," Melina confessed, showing some signs of shame.

"Ah." Wai Po nodded in sudden understanding, and she chuckled genially. She shot me an empathic glance and shook her head. "I know how you feel. The young ones tend to cause a lot of mischief. They don't listen to me no matter how many times I tell them not to do something. There's some sort of adventurous streak in them, especially at this age. They tend to think of themselves as invincible."

She sighed and turned to Adrian and Melina.

"You must remember…this isn't a game. It's extremely dangerous. You should leave the mission to your senior. You will only get in his way…he will be forced to protect you, and that might cause him more trouble than if he were to partake this mission alone."

She then frowned and paused before turning back to me.

"Are you alone? Where are your teammates? I don't mean these middle school kids, of course. Or did you really come to carry out this mission alone?"

"Well…" I was interrupted when the kettle whistled, signaling that the water had boiled. Wai Po held up a hand, and the extinguished the fire with a single gesture. She then poured the steaming water into our respective cups, which she had placed tea leaves in. The dark, soggy tea leaves made the murky drink look unappetizing, but I wasn't exactly expecting high quality tea in a place like this. I wouldn't be surprised if Wai Po grew these tea leaves by hand. Being polite, I took a sip of the tea and tried not to wince from the bitterness of the tea.

Let's just say I tasted much better tea back at home, and leave it at that.

I must not have been able to entirely conceal my expression, for Wai Po smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have any other beverages."

Plain water would have been fine, to be honest, but I wasn't rude enough to tell her that. I was a more tactful person than that, even if I was socially awkward. So I instead changed the topic back to the central issue.

"Anyway, don't worry. I might seem alone, but I'm a summoner. So I'm never truly alone."

"Brother Richard is the best summoner there is!" Adrian piqued up excitedly. I wouldn't go that far, but he didn't give me a chance to correct him. "Thanks to him, his team managed to achive third place in the national tournament this year!"

Wai Po merely nodded, though from her detached look it was clear that she had no idea what Adrian was talking about. Obviously…there was no television (or holographic screens), and she didn't seem to possess any smartphones or Internet access, so she wouldn't be privy to details of the outside world. She and her charges were living a hand to mouth existence, concerned only with surviving and subsisting on a day-to-day basis, nothing more.

Clearing my throat, I spoke up as humbly as I could. "My Soul Beasts and I should be able to handle a swarm of Cyclops Rats. If there proves to be too many, I will just isolate packs here and there and exterminate them one at a time. With that in mind, I hope you can provide me information regarding their numbers and possible locations of their nests…if you have them, of course. If not, don't worry. I should be able to find out."

Wai Po hesitated for a moment, and then ran her fingers through her white, thinning hair.

"We don't know their exact numbers, to be frank," she began. "But we know for sure there's a lot of them. Definitely more than thirty. Ah Gong from the neighboring house said he counted about three dozen of them swarming over Si Diao's house the other day…"

She then swallowed.

"Si Diao and his family were killed and eaten by the Cyclops Rats. By the time we went to help them, after the monsters were gone…there wasn't much of them left. Half-eaten bones and torn rags. They took the meat clean off the bones."

Adrian looked sick while Melina's hands flew to her mouth in horror. I paid no attention to their reactions and grimly made a mental note to check the unfortunate Si Diao's home for clues. I could safely a.s.sume that there were at least forty of these things.

"Thank you." I rose to my feet, subtly leaving my cup and the majority of the bitter tea untouched. "If you could point me toward the direction of Si Diao's house…"

"Yes, I'll guide you there. But before that." Wai Po clasped her own cup with both hands, her head bowed. "You were asking for the possible locations of their nest, correct?"

"Yeah." I looked at the old lady in surprise. I didn't expect her to have a clue regarding that. I thought I would have to search that out myself.

She swallowed uncomfortably, and then looked up at me firmly.

"We do know where they are coming from. Kan Dao spotted them emerging from a manhole the other night."

"A manhole?" Adrian repeated, flabbergasted.

"Huh?" Melina was also puzzled as she pondered on Wai Po's revelation. She brightened up. "Isn't that an important clue?"

As for me, I felt a little ill because I could already guess where the d.a.m.ned Cyclops Rats originated from. As if to confirm my thoughts, Wai Po nodded solemnly.

"They are coming from the sewers."